Thomas Hammarberg is Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and has held the position since 2005. The humanitarian/activist has spent decades of his life struggling to advance human rights in Europe and beyond. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for his works with a UK NGO. Hammarberg spoke with Georgi Gotev of EurActiv about the EU’s policy on immigration.

The White House has recently submitted to the Treaty of Pelindaba and Treaty of Rarotonga to the Senate for ratification. These treaties address the designation of Africa as nuclear weapon-free zones. Once these treaties are in effect, it will mean that a large part of the world will be free of nuclear weapons. Many areas, such as parts of Asia and Latin America, are already protected under nuclear-free zone treaties.

UK residents and citizens of the world were recently given another terrible shock: the
costs of replacing the warfare Trident submarines will actually cost upwards of 25 billion
pounds, not the 11-14 billion pounds which was cited back in 2006. It is no surprise that
the ministry of defense is going over budget.

On May 5th through 8th, activities from throughout Europe gathered in Genoa, Italy for the annual meeting of European Humanist Federation (EHF). As to keeping with tradition of the meeting, a different subgroup of EHF hosted the meeting and its events. This year, Italy’s Union of Atheists and Rationalist Agonstics (UAAR) led the assembly.

On June 1st, 2008, activist and Spokesperson for New Humanismm in Europe Giorgio
Schultze took over the hunger strike protesting the American space shield. The protest
was begun by Jan Tamas and Jan Bednar who were forced to take a break from their
hunger strike due to deteriorating health.